Twillingate

Prime Berth Fishing Museum was nothing like what I thought it would be.  Dave, a Newfoundlander fisherman who still fishes, took us down to his dock and demonstrated how to cut a cod.  Once it is slit down the middle he removes the liver and puts it in a bucket to rot (that is how you get cod liver oil), then he disposed of the rest of the innards through a hole in the floor. Next you cut off the head, remove its tongue and cheeks to eat and something hard from the head that can be used to tell the age of the cod. Next you slice off the spine and feed it to the fish.  This causes the cod to be flat so you can filet the meat from the skin before dumping a large handful of rock salt all over it.  It is then placed on drying racks before being put in a barrel and sold. Or at least that’s how it was done for 100s of years. Now the fisherman just guts the fish in the boat and the cod is shipped whole and sold to a processor.

Dave had at least 4 other buildings with antiques from top to bottom, two full sets of whale bones and a gift shop. The whales had died before he got them so he dragged one out to an uninhabited island and let it rot for 3 years before cleaning off the blubber and putting the bones all back together.

In the afternoon we visited another museum, learned about polar bears which sometimes show up on the island, and then did a wine tour and tasting at Auk Island Winery.  Don’t get too excited, this was a fermented beverage made from wild berries, rhubarb, and strawberries. It was way too sweet for our taste.

The evening was spent at Twillingate NWI Dinner Theatre for food, laughter and music.